Internet Governance Priorities and Practices: China

Internet use in the Asia-Pacific region has grown in leaps and bounds over the last decade. Between 2000 and 2003 alone the Internet population in the region grew by an annual average of 38 percent to 250 million users, making the Asia-Pacific region the world's largest Internet community. Estimates put this number today at over 300 million and predict further strong growth. These impressive numbers notwithstanding, overall penetration rates are still very low in most countries...

A product of the Open Regional Dialogue on Internet Governance (ORDIG) project, this 26-page report shares results from a year-long process of various online and in-person consultation as well as research activities on internet governance priorities for the Asia-Pacific region. Overall, more than 3,000 individuals from over 37 countries in the region participated in some way in this initiative, which is implemented by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) in collaboration with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.

Specifically, the report draws on an online survey of 106 individuals from all stakeholder groups in China. It examines internet policy issues, such as how people living in China regard viruses, cyber attacks, and spam - as well as governance issues and opinions about two new and emerging technologies: wireless internet (in China, the market for Wi-fi equipment is predicted to grow by 33% annually over the next years, reaching US$160 million in 2008) and internet telephony.

One specific finding is that respondents from China are "significantly more dissatisfied" than those in other Asia-Pacific countries with the current system for allocating and managing internet protocol (IP) numbers. In addition, topics such as the availability of local content or local language software, often subsumed under the theme of online cultural diversity, appear to be less of an issue for Chinese internet users - given that the internet community in the country is large enough to provide the market size, economies of scale and online presence to ensure visibility, as well as the availability of content and software tools in the domestic language. However, research cited here warrants caution: "The very communities who do not enjoy a visible online presence are also unlikely to have taken the ORDIG online survey despite committed outreach efforts. According to estimates, China alone boasts over 230 living languages presenting a particular challenge to cultural diversity online."